Alabama Voter Roll Purge Before Election Is Blocked by Judge (1)

A federal judge blocked Alabama election officials from carrying out a last-minute purge of names from lists of registered voters, finding the state “blew” a 90-day nationwide deadline to maintain the status quo ahead of the November election.

The order Wednesday is a win for the US Department of Justice, which sued after Alabama’s Republican Secretary of State Wes Allen announced in mid-August that he was directing local officials to remove more than 3,000 voters suspected of being ineligible to participate because of their citizenship status, even as he acknowledged that the list might include US citizens.

It’s one ...